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A member of the Wildkats looks for an opening during a game on Saturday, as part of the Special Olympics women's basketball tournament held in the Lilly Center.

Campus hosts Special Olympics

By: Will Freske

Posted: 3/16/10

DePauw University once again hosted athletes from around the area for the annual Special Olympics women's basketball tournament.

For the last 23 years DePauw has hosted the only such tournament in the nation. Special Olympics Indiana, a not-for-profit organization, allows children and adults with intellectual disabilities the opportunity to compete in organized athletic events. On Mar. 13 and 14, 302 athletes competed on 32 teams from 21 delegations. With the Div. III nationals Track and Field meet, the location was moved from the Indoor Track and Field Center to the Lilly Fieldhouse.

Tracy Miller, the coordinator of program operations for Special Olympics Indiana, said that for the athletes, participating in the tournament was an extremely special opportunity.

"Special Olympics to them is having fun and meeting people," said Miller. "It's providing them an opportunity they wouldn't get on a day-to-day basis if they didn't have Special Olympics in their life."

Athletes were allowed to compete in three different events: Traditional Team Competition, 3 v. 3 Team Competition or Unified Sports Team Competition. In traditional games, athletes with intellectual disabilities competed against each other in a full court game on five member teams. Games with three member teams used half of the court. Unified Sports teams were comprised of athletes with intellectual disabilities and their partners, or athletes without intellectual disabilities.

"Unified partners are people without intellectual disabilities that are playing on a combined team with an athlete," Miller said. "[Teams] can play anywhere from three athletes and two partners to four athletes and one partner at a time."

Junior Staci Orr, director of service and philanthropy for Panhellenic council, said she believes that a great deal of the tournament's success came from moving the tournament to Lilly Gymnasium.

"The way it was divided this year made people come together," said Orr. "Moving it from the track and field center to Lilly helped. It looked like a lot of people were there and they were really supported and also the acoustics and the floor are much better in Lilly."

Orr said she also thought that the Greek community really benefited from participating in the tournament.

"[Special Olympics] got a majority of the Greek chapters involved in something other than the normal competitions organized on campus," she said.

Throughout the weekend, many fraternities and sororities attended games, holding signs and banners to support the athletes.

"There were three chapters assigned to five or six teams. [Athletes] felt united as a team before they got to campus," Orr said.

Orr also said that such support is increadibly important to the athletes.

"The medals are important, but [the athletes] getting to feel the support from members of the community is even better," she said.

When asked what it means to see DePauw students in the stands supporting the teams, Miller was very grateful.

"Personally this is a one of a kind tournament," she said. "We go to [another] University and we don't have the fraternity or sorority support that we do here and it's amazing. Seeing the athletes interact with the students on campus is heartwarming."

Michelle Martin, an athlete from the Cass County delegation, said she could not have been happier with the student turnout.

"It's awesome that [the students] could clap and be there for us," Martin said. "It gave us a reason to smile."